Anyone Missed the Ship Due to a Private Tour Company?

We were in Cabo San Lucas recently on the Infinity. The ship had actually turned round ready to head to the open sea when a tender came 'rushing' out of the harbour and pulled alongside and one person (I think) got on board. Never did find out what it was all about, whether it was a passenger or crew member.

I don't know why we all think we have to show why "our way" of doing shore excursions is the best way.

Some people can't handle any/much risk...and while that isn't me, I have no problem with you feeling that way. When does a "risk" that is so minuscule become nonexistent?

I am a X cheerleader, BUT they do try to scare the passengers into doing X shore excursions by using the "you won't be left behind" mantra more than once during the shore excursion talks.

Although I'm only elite plus (so take that into account for the number of times I have cruised), I have never been on a cruise that X offered a shore excursion that was cheaper than one that I could do on my own. My general rule of thumb is I can do it for 1/2 of what the ship is charging.

If it will keep cruising prices down, I hope every X excursion is sold out on every sailing!

We were on a Princess cruise in Jamaica on a ship sponsored tour. We did the falls and the skyride, but it was getting late. The ship kept radioing our tour operator asking if we were on our way. It became rush hour traffic, and lo and behold, we got a police escort to the ship, lights and sirens clearing the way.

Two years ago on the Disney Magic in Italy, it was a national holiday and the private tour operator told us to expect a lot of traffic on our way from Naples to Sorrento. The bus driver was excellent and got us there and back with time to spare even though the traffic was awful. Later, when I posted my photos on the DCL board, a passenger who had taken a ship-sponsored tour in Florence identified the driver and the tour operator as the ones on their tour. So, you know many of the private tour operators are also well known to the ship excursion organizers.

As someone said before, the private tour operators know the ships and their schedules, and barring an unforseen circumstance, will make darn sure you make it back to your ship on time.

[quote name=PaleGale55;46667409

On a cruise last year' date=' two of our party lost track of time and had to do the 1500 yard dash to the gang plank. I believe they, and the couple arriving behind them, were approximately 20 minutes late by the time they set foot on the gang plank but I cannot be sure of the time. I do recall the ship was basically ready to sail and cruise staff had pretty much completed departure preparations and were ready to raise the gang plank when the runners appeared at the entry to the pier. They actually arrived within sight of the ship just at the deadline but the location of the ship meant they had a bit of a distance to cover to actually get to the ship. The couple behind our friends tried to run but were quickly out of breath so they ended up walking to the ship, hence the time from their appearance at the gate, to their arrival at the gang plank, was definately after the sailing time.[/quote]

If I were the captain,l I would have pulled up the gangplank as they started to run down the pier. They were late because of their own fault and not because of an act of God so the ship should not have waited.

DON

You are making a broad assumption on a very small sampling of total cruisers. Until we have heard from EVERY person who has ever cruised, it is impossible to asses the actual risk. I have read many comments on these boards about people being left behind, some with video to back them up. On our last cruise in Asia it was reported that seven people were left behind at the various ports during the duration of the cruise. I did not hear of the same amount of fellow cruisers "getting knocked down by a car or robbed". This alone tells me that the risk of being left behind is very real, and valid enough to take into consideration every time I get off the ship.

 

It is so much better to be smart about this than to take a cavalier attitude based on what has - or has not - been reported on this one thread.

Yet the fact remains not one person on this forum has actually had a problem and that's the question asked. I've not spoken to anyone who missed the ship through a private tour personally but have spoken to cruisers that have had accidents and being robbed. Could it happen ? Yes but so could many things. Being smart has nothing to do with it because if you use a reputable tour guide and miss a ship it's more just bad luck, you can't predict what's going to happen.

There are several tour booking agencies that guarantee you will return to your ship in time or they will get you to your next port of call.

Depending upon the port, the next port and the type of cruise, there could be a passport of more precisely an absence-of-passport issue that could create problems here. Yet another reason to have a passport and not a birth certificate.

DON

I don't know why we all think we have to show why "our way" of doing shore excursions is the best way.

 

Some people can't handle any/much risk...and while that isn't me, I have no problem with you feeling that way. When does a "risk" that is so minuscule become nonexistent?

 

I am a X cheerleader, BUT they do try to scare the passengers into doing X shore excursions by using the "you won't be left behind" mantra more than once during the shore excursion talks.

 

Although I'm only elite plus (so take that into account for the number of times I have cruised), I have never been on a cruise that X offered a shore excursion that was cheaper than one that I could do on my own. My general rule of thumb is I can do it for 1/2 of what the ship is charging.

 

If it will keep cruising prices down, I hope every X excursion is sold out on every sailing!

We have on a couple of occasions found the X excursion to be cheaper than private.

We still take about 3/4 of our tours on private tours, many of which I organize.

I have found that NCL's excursion prices are generally higher than X's.

If you are tendering into a port, where the tendering takes a long time, even with priority tendering as elite, taking the X tour gets you off the ship earlier and more time to see the sites.

The third option is to DIY. This works out well in places like Istanbul, Athens, and Copenhagen.

We are booked on an Alaskan cruise Sept 2016 (NCL Sun) and I have done the research for tour. The price differential is not significant, only about 10%. However, the prices for tours in Norway on our Sept 2014 cruise out of Copenhagen, the ship's tours were about 4-5 times the prices of private tours. Unfortunately, as the tour organizer, I had to collect all the fees in advance to pay the tour guide (would not accept payment from each person). That was a royal pain. I won't do that again if I can help it.

Yet the fact remains not one person on this forum has actually had a problem and that's the question asked.

The people in the newspaper article that I linked to had a problem in that they were killed because they chose to take a private tour run by an unlicensed company that provided them with a driver who didn't have a valid driver's license. But I guess that they don't count as being "on this forum" because they are dead.

I've not spoken to anyone who missed the ship through a private tour personally

Well, you can't talk to those people on the private tour because they are dead. But I linked to a newspaper article about them, so one can't say that it's just hearsay.

Many years ago, our tablemates on a Royal cruise were late getting back to the port in Cozumel since they had done the dreaded renting of motorbikes at that stop. They were hauled in to the police station, where they bribed their way out to get back to the ship only to find it pulling away from the dock. Coincidentally (wink, wink) there was a speedboat there to get them out to the ship where they were hoisted up with the life ring or some such contraption. And they only had to pay the speedboat driver a hundred bucks for the three of them. Pretty funny story, we thought.

Yet the fact remains not one person on this forum has actually had a problem and that's the question asked. I've not spoken to anyone who missed the ship through a private tour personally but have spoken to cruisers that have had accidents and being robbed. Could it happen ? Yes but so could many things. Being smart has nothing to do with it because if you use a reputable tour guide and miss a ship it's more just bad luck, you can't predict what's going to happen.

Well, we can agree to disagree, then. I have never been robbed, hit by a car, or left behind, so that must mean that none of those things ever happened to anyone else. :rolleyes:

I have almost missed the ship once - as mentioned in an earlier post - but I have never almost been robbed or almost been hit by a car. So, as far as I'm concerned, for me the risk of missing the ship has been the greatest of these three risk possibilities.

As far as luck is concerned, there is dumb luck and there is smart luck. I prefer to be smart when booking tours so that less luck is needed. ;)

If I use a reputable tour operator, I am confident they will do whatever they can to rectify the situation if they cause me to miss the ship. This includes transportation arrangements and cost to connect with the ship at another port, plus housing and incidental costs during that time. Several of the tour operators I have booked with state such guarantees in their contract documentation.

Well, we can agree to disagree, then. I have never been robbed, hit by a car, or left behind, so that must mean that none of those things ever happened to anyone else. :rolleyes:

 

I have almost missed the ship once - as mentioned in an earlier post - but I have never almost been robbed or almost been hit by a car. So, as far as I'm concerned, for me the risk of missing the ship has been the greatest of these three risk possibilities.

 

As far as luck is concerned, there is dumb luck and there is smart luck. I prefer to be smart when booking tours so that less luck is needed. ;)

 

If I use a reputable tour operator, I am confident they will do whatever they can to rectify the situation if they cause me to miss the ship. This includes transportation arrangements and cost to connect with the ship at another port, plus housing and incidental costs during that time. Several of the tour operators I have booked with state such guarantees in their contract documentation.

We were threatened with a Machete in St Lucia which was frightening. However the trick is certainly to pick a reputable tour guide. Looking through the feedback of the best in the area it's almost impossible to find a review where someone has missed the ship.

We were threatened with a Machete in St Lucia which was frightening. However the trick is certainly to pick a reputable tour guide. Looking through the feedback of the best in the area it's almost impossible to find a review where someone has missed the ship.

If you check the crime stats for the Caribbean, you will find high crime rates almost everywhere. You have to be careful. Perhaps a large group would be safer than DIY.

If you check the crime stats for the Caribbean, you will find high crime rates almost everywhere. You have to be careful. Perhaps a large group would be safer than DIY.

There have been several instances of cruise line bus excursions being robbed in the Caribbean. The robbers liked a large group. More loot....

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5312

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4755

http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/11/16/cruise-lines-cancel-st-kitts-in-wake-of-robbery/

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Last year - Athens, small private tour with excellent driver. On the road to the port in plenty of time, the minivan stopped and wouldn't start. The police came, ticketed the driver and we were afraid the driver would be arrested as heated words passed between him and the police.

Meanwhile the company's other van passed us -- the driver said he'll come back for us. By that time it was getting tense, a couple women were panicking and got out waving cash trying to a ride!

The rest of us were resigned to finding a way to get to Istanbul without our confiscated passports.

The other driver circled back and we arrived at port security after all aboard time but the ship hadn't left. Security was an ordeal with 2 3000 passenger ships going thru the same lines. We were an hour late boarding and they had one gangway left open.

Who knows if they would have left if Athens port security was more organized, but we were lucky.

I do ship's excursion mostly for remote ports or stops that would be hard to get to the next port. Private everywhere else, with the thought if we don't make it, it's just another adventure. ;)

Episode in 2009 on the Caribbean Island of Grenada and several passengers were on a private tour that involved and open air/canvas topped flat bed vehicle with seats. Their tour was involved in a serious accident and several passengers were hospitalized, some seriously injured.

Even though it was NOT a Celebrity cruise, the Captain held the ship in port for more than 5-6 hours and sent Celebrity medical staff to assist as well as staff to help coordinate air transfers back to Miami, assist family members not hospitalized to remain with their injured family members with hotels, flights home, etc.

I was extremely impressed with the assistance offered by the captain and ship's staff. The Captain decided to leave a few staff members on Grenada to further assist with coordination of care of patients and families. He did any excellent job of keeping those on the ship informed without revealing private information about the passengers. Kudos to Celebrity. They had many choices, and chose the humane ones.

Episode in 2002 Princess cruise, Port of Juneau, Alaska. Several small groups from our ship reserved a flight seeing adventure via helicopter with included glacier landing and walking on glacier. Beautiful and far exceeded our expectations.

However, on the way back to the heliport....a huge fog bank rolled in from the water and over the mountain range. It shut down visibility of all the mountain passes to be able to return to port. The chopper pilots were communicating with each other as they tried different option. None available. :eek:

So they landed the choppers in a large marshy area about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from highway and had us disembark and trudge through the knee deep mud/water/tall grass marsh to the highway. Chopper company meanwhile sent a bus to pick us up. I recall 7-8 choppers of cruise ship passengers. We knew there was no way we could make it back to the ship on time! :eek:

But they were in communication with the ship and they waited for us. 30+ cold muddy passengers were met dockside by the ships staff and quickly directed to the gangway. As soon as the last of us stepped on board the gangway was lifted and we sailed. :D Whew!:p

(BTW, we did have assurance from the Helicopter Company (@ time of booking reservations) that if they were delayed getting us to a port that THEY would arrange for us to get to the next port)

I almost always use private tours! I have never had an incident where we were even close to being late, never mind missing the ship.

Never missed the ship but once at Toulon France, (port in Provence area), we got back late and arrived about 5 minutes before the last on board time. Our driver missed a freeway exit and the next exit was about 40KM down the road and then we hit heavy rush hour traffic in the port city. I was the last on board and they had the gangway area cleared of all the usual items and pulled it up immediately after I boarded.

 

 

 

 

We also almost missed the ship in Toulon, France, last year. There were two busloads (about 40 of us) on a private Cruise Critic tour. We were in Aix and the guide said we could get back to the ship in 30 min. We left at 5:00 and the ship was leaving at 5:45. We hit a huge traffic jam just outside the port. We could see the ship, but we were just inching along. There was not a sound on the bus, except for one person with a GPS who was telling us estimated time to the ship. We were thinking how we were going to get to Barcelona. We made it with 5 min. to spare and I never want to go through that again.

 

I was on this tour with you apparently! Were you on bus 1, 2 or 3? That guide also had a loud argument with one of the group about whether or not it was sufficient time to return. We also left an hour later in the morning than we agreed. Additionally, confusion occurred at the end of the day because the busses were not at the agreed place. I still am considering writing a scathing review on TripAdvisor for this guide. Did you? Looking back I wish I had contacted him to request a refund upon my return home. Also, the cost + tip was collected by the organizer before the tour and given to the guide. I don't feel he deserved a tip of any kind for our anguish!

 

I was on this tour with you apparently! Were you on bus 1, 2 or 3? That guide also had a loud argument with one of the group about whether or not it was sufficient time to return. We also left an hour later in the morning than we agreed. Additionally, confusion occurred at the end of the day because the busses were not at the agreed place. I still am considering writing a scathing review on TripAdvisor for this guide. Did you? Looking back I wish I had contacted him to request a refund upon my return home. Also, the cost + tip was collected by the organizer before the tour and given to the guide. I don't feel he deserved a tip of any kind for our anguish!

 

Not too late to post this information on Trip Advisor....also on CC "Port of Call" section for people seeking tour recommendations (or who to avoid!)

 

I was on this tour with you apparently! Were you on bus 1, 2 or 3? That guide also had a loud argument with one of the group about whether or not it was sufficient time to return. We also left an hour later in the morning than we agreed. Additionally, confusion occurred at the end of the day because the busses were not at the agreed place. I still am considering writing a scathing review on TripAdvisor for this guide. Did you? Looking back I wish I had contacted him to request a refund upon my return home. Also, the cost + tip was collected by the organizer before the tour and given to the guide. I don't feel he deserved a tip of any kind for our anguish!

 

 

Yes, we were in bus 1 and we were all waiting while the guide took the couple who planned the trip to lunch in Aix. That was why we had to leave so late. They also had free seats. I don't remember the guide's name, but he should be reported, but trip advisor probably won't report it. And, of course, bus 2 had to wait in the rain for an hour waiting for their bus. One woman from that group did demand her money back and got it and did not go. Yes, someone from bus 2 did get into a loud argument with the guide because they were sure it was not enough time at 5PM to get back to the ship. Turns out, they were right.

We also almost missed the ship in Toulon, France, last year. There were two busloads (about 40 of us) on a private Cruise Critic tour. We were in Aix and the guide said we could get back to the ship in 30 min. We left at 5:00 and the ship was leaving at 5:45. We hit a huge traffic jam just outside the port. We could see the ship, but we were just inching along. There was not a sound on the bus, except for one person with a GPS who was telling us estimated time to the ship. We were thinking how we were going to get to Barcelona. We made it with 5 min. to spare and I never want to go through that again.

I was on this tour with you apparently! Were you on bus 1, 2 or 3? That guide also had a loud argument with one of the group about whether or not it was sufficient time to return. We also left an hour later in the morning than we agreed. Additionally, confusion occurred at the end of the day because the busses were not at the agreed place. I still am considering writing a scathing review on TripAdvisor for this guide. Did you? Looking back I wish I had contacted him to request a refund upon my return home. Also, the cost + tip was collected by the organizer before the tour and given to the guide. I don't feel he deserved a tip of any kind for our anguish!

We were on the Silhouette TA with you. Our cabin faced the port, and I recall standing on the balcony and seeing your buses pull up and being amazed anyone was getting back so late. Was really glad to see you all were in time (barely)!

We were on the Silhouette TA with you. Our cabin faced the port, and I recall standing on the balcony and seeing your buses pull up and being amazed anyone was getting back so late. Was really glad to see you all were in time (barely)!

I think this is a risk we all take when we are not the person making the decisions. It was bonding for all of us on the buses, tho. Kind of like being in a foxhole together, I guess. :rolleyes:

When you leave the ship, take the phone # of the ship agent, copy of passport, credit cards and money. I know people who missed the ship. WE were in France on a private tour. Tour left early and was returning with lots of time. There was a roadblock by angry farmers protesting something. We waited more than 2 hours in traffic. We missed the ship. Some ship tours also missed it. Contacted the ship agent who helped us make arrangements to rejoin the ship at the next port and found us a place to sleep. Last year, we were on Azamara when the ship sailed into St. Jean de Luz. We were supposed to stay 2 days. On day 1, the seas were rough. The tendering was stopped and the ship was moved to Bayonne, France. People ashore returned to the dock after the ship sailed. Again the ship agent was contacted to arrange transportation to Bayonne.

Here is the tour company:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187217-d4373325-Reviews-France_Prestige_Tours_Private_Day_Tours-Antibes_French_Riviera_Cote_d_Azur_Proven.html

For anyone that delays the departure of a ship, how about this?

He or she must buy a round for everyone in the first bar they step in after said delay. And they must wear a dunce cap for the entire day. :D